Exploring the Paradigm Shifts Needed To Reconcile Transportation and Sustainability Objectives

Abstract

A sustainable economy is sensitive to economic, social, and environmental constraints. Sustainability requires more efficient, equitable, and environmentally sensitive transport. This cannot be achieved simply by changes in vehicle design or improved traffic management. It requires changes in the way we think about transportation, and how we identify and evaluate solutions to transport problems—“paradigm shifts.” This paper discusses these changes and their implications for transportation decision making. Sustainability requires rethinking how we measure transportation. Transport planners often treat vehicle movement as an end in itself. Sustainable transportation planning focuses on access, which can often be improved with strategies that reduce the need to travel altogether, such as land use management and improved communications. Sustainability requires comprehensive decision making that takes into account indirect and interrelated effects. Sustainable transport planning begins with a community’s strategic plan, which individual transportation decisions must support. It requires policies that reward individuals, agencies, and communities for achieving sustainability objectives. There are many specific transportation strategies that can help support sustainability, including improved travel choices, more efficient pricing, and more efficient land use. Individually such strategies may have modest impacts, but implemented together they can provide substantial benefits. At least onethird of current motor vehicle use could be reduced by eliminating market distortions that encourage inefficient travel.

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